Ghosts, trains and haunted trails: Exploring southeast Ohio's Moonville Tunnel

McARTHUR — At the mouth of the Moonville Tunnel — the last remnants of a 19th century railway in southeast Ohio's Vinton County — the brick-lined cavern beckons hikers, bicyclists and thrill-seekers to explore the tunnel's haunted history.

It is said, if you listen carefully, inhale deeply and blink intermittently, you may encounter spirits from another time: the piercing whistle of a train rounding a curve, the smell of lavender wafting from a woman in an old-fashioned dress or, even the glow of gaslit lantern illuminating the face of a weathered brakeman.

These paranormal signs are supposedly from the spirits who lived in the area 150 years ago, said Caleb Appleman, Vinton County's marketing director and the secretary of the Moonville Rail Trail Association. Back then Moonville was a community of coal miners and railroad workers, and where some met their grisly demise along the rail line.

The tracks were built out in 1856 and trains operated across them, although more sparingly, until 1985. They carried coal, clay deposits, and iron across southern Ohio, Appleman said, as well as rail line workers and miners until the early 20th century.

The Moonville Rail Trail Association, a nonprofit established in April 2001, maintains the now 10-mile trail, which includes 13 bridges across Vinton County. The Moonville Tunnel remains a popular tourist attraction — full of rich history, a natural wooded landscape and, according to legend, its fair share of ghosts.

As far as the ghosts are concerned, though, Appleman said: "I've never seen anything."

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Ghost stories: Who haunts Moonville and why?

In 1856, Samuel Coe, a farmer living in the backwoods of the Zaleski Forest, offered the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad the chance to build train tracks across his property with the aim of shipping more clay and coal deposits off his land.

The railroad company agreed and built out a line that more efficiently connected Marietta to Cincinnati. As a result, the community of Moonville sprung around the tracks cutting through Coe's land. At its peak, the town had about 100 residents and some 23 nearby saloons, Appleman said.

Those saloons proved to be fatal for some who would walk across the tracks at the wrong time.

Appleman said some of those poor souls still haunt the tunnel. Others, like the Lavender Lady, linger for other reasons.

According to legend, the Lavender Lady appears as an apparition in a white dress searching for her fiancé, who worked on the rail line, when she was struck by a train. While accounts vary, some say they can smell her perfume — a sharp burst of lavender — as she passes by.

Another popular phantom of Moonville's lore is a man by the name of Frank Lawhead. He was allegedly killed in a train collision in1880 where two freights trains, one traveling eastbound and one westbound, both failed to notify each other of their impending routes and crashed.

The Chillicothe man, either a brakeman or an engineer — the news accounts at the time vary — is also connected to a well-established sighting: a man close to eight feet tall, "with eyes that glisten like balls of fire."

That ghost is also supposedly dressed in dirty overalls and swings a glowing lantern at the entrance of the tunnel, and, upon sight, releases a blood-curdling scream.

Appleman said there is another variation of the tale, where Lawhead, a brakeman in this story, fell asleep and awoke during the night by the sound of his train leaving the Moonville Station depot, clutching a lantern as he scrambled to catch the train, but stumbled onto the tracks and fell beneath its wheels — never to recover from his injuries.

Preserving a piece of southeast Ohio history

Appleman and Moonville Rail Trail Association president, Mary Jane Kaelley said their organization's mission is to preserve the trail's history — not necessarily pass along ghost stories.

For the past 20 years, the association has built out the remnants of the rail line into 10 miles of trail that folks can hike, bike or ride horseback on, Kaelley said. They hope to eventually extend the rest of the trail to Jackson, Ohio — about 27 miles southeast of Chillicothe and more than 76 miles southeast of Columbus — with funding from the governor's Office of Appalachia, other state grants and community organizations.

The association maintains the Moonville Tunnel and surrounding trail, while Vinton County owns the property.

The tunnel has always been a highlight in the region, Kaelley said, but most people who are drawn to it come from outside Appalachia.

"I grew up here, but never set foot in the tunnel until high school," Appleman said. "It's one of those things you have in your backyard that locals take for granted sometimes."

That said, the association and county are doing their best to draw more visitors. Every October, they host "Midnight at Moonville," a festival featuring local craft and food vendors and live acoustic music inside the tunnel.

"We play up the paranormal," Appleman said.

The association built out a bridge connecting the Zaleski Forest to the mouth of the tunnel over Racoon Creek in 2016. As a result, modern amenities adorn this path to haunted history.

Visitors have since covered the bridge with love locks in the European tradition and varying degrees of graffiti. Shades of bubblegum pink and highlighter blue decorate the walls of the Moonville Tunnel alongside the apparitions of railroads past.

"I guess," Appleman said with a shrug, "the ghosts don't scare the vandals away."

Visitors can access the Moonville Tunnel on Hope-Moonville Road in McArthur, Ohio. For more information, go to the county's website at vintoncountytravel.com.

Céilí Doyle is a Report for America corps member and covers rural issues in Ohio for The Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible gift at https://bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.

You can reach her via email at cdoyle@dispatch.com or follow her on Twitter at @cadoyle18

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ghost-hunting? Visit southeast Ohio's Moonville Tunnel for spooks